Olaudah EquianoOlaudah Equiano was born in West Africa. As a young boy, he was kidnapped by an African tribe and sold to European slave traders, who took him to Virginia. He eventually purchased his freedom and moved to England, where he became active in the abolition movement. He later wrote an autobiography describing his experiences as a slave. Recently, a historian located evidence indicating that Equiano was actually born in South Carolina. However, other historians maintain that there is strong evidence corroborating Equiano’s account. Moreover, this is one of the only accounts of the Middle passage from the perspective of an enslaved person. These are excerpts from Equiano’s autobiography.
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His Account: |
I was soon put down under the decks, and there I received such a smell in my nostrils as I had never experienced in my life: so that, with the loathsomeness of the stench, and crying together, I became so sick and low that I was not able to eat, nor had I the least desire to taste any thing. I now wished for the last friend, death, to relieve me; but soon, to my grief, two of the white men offered me food; and, on my refusing to eat, one of them held me fast by the hands, and laid me across I think the windlass, and tied my feet, while the other flogged me severely. I had never experienced any thing of this kind before. . . .
The crew used to watch us very closely who were not chained down to the decks, in case we would leap into the water: and I have seen some of these poor African prisoners most severely cut for attempting to do so, and hourly whipped for not eating. This indeed was often the case with myself. . . . I feared I should be put to death, the white people looked and acted, as I thought, in so savage a manner; for I had never seen among any people such instances of brutal cruelty; and this not only shown towards us blacks, but also to some of the whites themselves. One white man in particular I saw, when we were permitted to be on deck, flogged so unmercifully with a large rope near the foremast, that he died . . . and they tossed him over the side. . . . This made me fear these people the more. Source: Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, the African, 1789. |
Vocabulary: |
Vocabulary
loathsomeness: unpleasantness windlass: machine used to raise the anchor flogged: whipped |